China Ready to Execute Brit

Two cousins of a British man facing execution in China have arrived in the country to make a last-ditch appeal to authorities for mercy.

Akmal Shaikh, 53, from London, is due to be executed on 29 December after he was convicted of smuggling heroin.

But relatives Soohail and Nasir Shaikh plan to deliver a plea on his behalf to President Hu Jintao.

Mr Shaikh’s supporters say he is mentally ill and Gordon Brown has asked Chinese authorities for clemency.

British consular staff have also flown to the Chinese region of Xinjiang to see the condemned Briton and discuss his case with local officials.

No contact

Legal charity Reprieve, which has taken up the case, said Mr Shaikh’s cousins left the UK on Saturday.

They intend to deliver petitions seeking a legal review to China’s Supreme People’s Court and to the local court in the north-western city of Urumqi where Mr Shaikh was arrested in September 2007.

Reprieve said the men, who are brothers, also planned to appeal to China’s president and to the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, which is responsible for considering petitions for pardon or clemency.

Mr Shaikh has had no contact with his family for two years, but the cousins hope they may be granted a prison visit with him.

The Briton has denied all knowledge of the 4kg of heroin found in his possession.

His family say he has bipolar disorder and was duped by a criminal gang into unwittingly carrying drugs for them.

The BBC’s Quentin Sommerville said Mr Shaikh’s relatives want to explain that he had “suffered from long-term mental illness” and travelled to China to pursue a “fantasy” belief in a possible career as a pop star.

“They believe he was not responsible for himself and certainly not responsible for drug trafficking,” said our correspondent.

He added that the situation was getting “very desperate” for the Briton because the Chinese authorities do not have a reputation for leniency.

‘Compassionate approach’

Soohail Shaikh says in his petition: “We plead for his life, asking that a full mental health evaluation be conducted to assess the impact of his mental illness, and that recognition be made that he is not as culpable as those who might, under Chinese law, be eligible for the death penalty.”

Reprieve’s director Clive Stafford Smith said the Chinese Embassy authorities had been “kind” and opened on Boxing Day to facilitate a visa for this visit, “recognising the devastating blow that this execution date has inflicted on the entire family”.

“We very much hope that this compassionate approach continues to the point of granting Akmal a reprieve,” he said.

So far China has resisted calls to stop the execution, despite the case being raised by the UK 10 times during the last six months at senior diplomatic levels.

The prime minister has also written to China’s leaders to express his dismay after Mr Shaikh’s sentence was upheld by the Supreme People’s Court.

If the sentence is carried out, it would be the first time an EU national has been executed in China for 50 years.

Russia Blames U.S. Forces in Afghanistan for Heroin Rise

The head of Russia’s anti-narcotics federal agency says that British troops in Helmand Province are not doing enough to stem production of the world’s deadliest drug.

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“Sixty percent of all opiates in the world are produced in the area that the British forces are responsible for,” said Viktor Ivanov.

“There were 25 hectares of opium in 2004. Now there are 90,000. This shows you how effective they are.”

Vast swathes of borderland between Russia and Kazakhstan are prime territory for smuggling heroin from Afghanistan; road and rail are the primary methods of transit.

The drug is smuggled through Central Asia by train. Bundles are ejected for pick-up en route. Some are seized – many are not.

Twenty kilos of heroin were seized earlier this year from conductors who were smuggling it on board the train from Tajikistan to Moscow.

But such hauls are just the tip of the iceberg – only 4% or 5% of heroin coming into Russia is actually captured – a small fraction of the estimated 60 tonnes that arrive from Afghanistan each year.

St Petersburg is one of the worst affected cities in Russia.

Away from the architectural grandeur lies its darker side. Heroin is rife and support is scarce. A small bus is the only needle exchange in the entire city. Methadone substitution is banned. Both mean a big problem with HIV.

Alexsei and Zhanna are both HIV positive heroin addicts

We met Alexsei and Zhanna in their cramped top floor flat. Both are HIV positive heroin addicts. Because of her usage, one half of Zhanna’s body is paralysed. She has not left the flat for three years.

She said: “There is not a single vein left anywhere. Not in my legs, not in my feet, my thighs, stomach or my chest.

“I used to even shoot up in my forehead and my eyes. Wherever you see a bit of blue vein – you stick a needle in there.”

Younger generations are also falling victim to the drug’s ubiquity.

Outside a metro station, we spotted a boy who looks no older than eight. He and his friends are incredibly open about their drug use. They say they steal and wash cars to get enough money to inject daily.

Russia has an estimated 2.5m heroin addicts – most are under the age of 30. For a country in the midst of a deepening demographic crisis, the prospect of a lost generation is a terrifying one.

British SAS Opens Operations

The incredible heroics of the Special Forces could be revealed for the first time under plans to lift their veil of secrecy.

SAS Entry

The British Government may scrap the practice of never commenting on the clandestine operations of the Special Air Service (SAS) and Special Boat Service (SBS).

A confidential Ministry of Defense review is considering dropping the publicity ban and shedding more light on the vital work of these forces. That could include the MoD confirming the names and details of members killed in action on operations.

But many within the MoD and the Armed Forces believe the publicity ban is vital for the elite soldiers’ security.

‘People are very divided on this. Some feel the forces don’t get the recognition for what they do. Others say that the rules are there to protect them,’ said a source.

Even the existence of the internal review, understood to have been ordered by Defence ministers, was being regarded as a State secret. The MoD yesterday said it was not aware that the policy was being reconsidered.

But authoritative sources later confirmed that officials had been debating the merits of bringing Special Forces’ work into the open – with the strict proviso it did not endanger them.

Some senior Government figures believe revealing more information about the forces could help win support for the war in Afghanistan.

One official said: ‘At present we cannot even name personnel if they are killed on operation.’

Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth is understood to be sympathetic to the idea.

But Tory defense spokesman Liam Fox warned: ‘War is not a PR exercise. If we can give our troops adequate praise without compromising them, that’s one thing, but we must never allow missions to become media-led.’

Surveillance Widens in U.K.

All telecom companies and internet service providers will be required by law to keep a record of every customer’s personal communications, showing who they have contacted, when and where, as well as the websites they have visited.

Despite widespread opposition to the increasing amount of surveillance in Britain, 653 public bodies will be given access to the information, including police, local councils, the Financial Services Authority, the ambulance service, fire authorities and even prison governors.

They will not require the permission of a judge or a magistrate to obtain the information, but simply the authorisation of a senior police officer or the equivalent of a deputy head of department at a local authority.

Ministers had originally wanted to store the information on a single government-run database, but chose not to because of privacy concerns.

However the Government announced yesterday it was pressing ahead with privately held “Big Brother” databases that opposition leaders said amounted to “state-spying” and a form of “covert surveillance” on the public.

It is doing so despite its own consultation showing that it has little public support.

The Home Office admitted that only one third of respondents to its six-month consultation on the issue supported its proposals, with 50 per cent fearing that the scheme lacked sufficient safeguards to protect the highly personal data from abuse.

The new law will increase the amount of personal data that can be obtained by officials through the controversial Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA), which is supposed to be used for fighting terrorism.

Although most private firms already hold details of every customer’s private calls and emails for their own business purposes, most only do so on an ad hoc basis and only for a period of several months.

The new rules, known as the Intercept Modernisation Programme, will not only force communications companies to keep their records for longer, but to expand the type of data they keep to include details of every website their customers visit, effectively registering every online click.

While public authorities will not be able to view the contents of these emails or phone calls, they can see the internet addresses, dates, times and identify recipients of calls.

Firms involved in storing the data, including Orange, BT and Vodafone, will be reimbursed at a cost to the taxpayer of £2 billion over 10 years.

Chris Grayling, the shadow home secretary, said he had fears about the abuse of the data. He said: “The big danger in all of this is ‘mission creep’. This government keeps on introducing new powers to tackle terrorism and organised crime which end up being used for completely different purposes. We have to stop that from happening”.

David Davis, the former shadow home secretary, added: “Whilst this is no doubt necessary in pursuing terrorist suspects, the proposals are so intrusive that they should be subject to legal approval, and should not be available except in pursuit of the most serious crimes.”

The Information Commissioner’s Office also opposed the moves.

“The Information Commissioner believes that the case has yet to be made for the collection and processing of additional communications data for the population as a whole being relevant and not excessive,” a spokesman said.

Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, has criticised the amount the scheme will cost for what he said is effectively “state spying”.

He added yesterday: “It is simply not that easy to separate the bare details of a call from its content. What if a leading business person is ringing Alcoholics Anonymous?”

Ministers said that they still have to work with the communications industry to find the correct way of framing the proposal in law — meaning it will not come before Parliament until after the general election. But the Home Office yesterday insisted it would push the legislation through. Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, originally released a consultation paper in April.

Only 29 per cent of respondents supported the Government approach. Meanwhile the communications providers themselves questioned the cost of the scheme and whether it was even technically feasible.

John Yates, Britain’s head of anti-terrorism, has argued that the legislation is vital for his investigators.

David Hanson, the Home Office minister, said: “The consultation showed widespread recognition of the importance of communications data in protecting the public .. we will now work with communications service providers and others to develop these proposals, and aim to introduce necessary legislation as soon as possible.”

Britain Declassify’s Secret Doomsday Manual

It’s October 1968, and the Soviet Union has just landed cosmonauts on the moon. Warsaw Pact troops are massing on the Austrian border, and a nuclear showdown looms between east and west.

This scenario never happened — except in planning exercises by British civil servants, who meticulously rehearsed how they would govern Britain in the days before, and after, World War III. The details are included in the “War Book,” a secret Cold War manual declassified this month for the first time.

The book, which featured the doomsday scenario in a 1970 version, is a step-by-step guide for dealing with a crisis, from the first stages of conflict to “R hour,” the designation for the release of all Britain’s nuclear weapons.

“It’s a manual of how to go to war,” William Spencer, military history specialist at Britain’s National Archives, said Tuesday.

“It’s a technical manual in a way, for the people who needed to know,” he added. “But it could be seen as a horrific document for some people.”

Britain became a nuclear power in 1952 and British politicians were under no illusions about the devastating effects of nuclear war. A 1955 report, kept secret until 2002, estimated that an attack by Soviet hydrogen bombs would kill 12 million people instantly.

So every two years during much of the Cold War, British civil servants participated in a dry run for the end of the world, practicing how they would do everything from crack down on subversives to evacuate art treasures from London.

The exercises, played out over weeks, included daily mock news briefings from intelligence chiefs. Senior civil servants played the prime minister and Cabinet, deciding how to respond.

The 1968 exercise, revealed in the newly released manual, imagined Soviets landing on the moon as tensions mounted along the Iron Curtain. Day by day, the crisis escalated: Soviet troops invaded Austria, West Germany, Finland, Turkey, Greece and Italy, eventually invading “Danish islands.” Britons got more and more nervous — first writing letters to newspapers, then staying home from work, stocking up on food and buying supplies to build bomb shelters.

In calm bureaucratic language — loaded with code words to render the book meaningless to those not in the know — the document describes how as the crisis worsened, civil servants would introduce censorship, evacuate all but the sickest patients from hospitals and eventually be sent to one of 12 underground bunkers scattered around the country.

Britain was to be governed from these bunkers after a nuclear attack, with officials exercising powers of martial law over the remaining population.

Peter Hennessy, a historian who has studied the book and pushed for its release, said it provided a glimpse into “one of the darker bits of the British secret state in the Cold War.”

“The surprise really is the width and magnitude of it — 16 chapters to get the nation from a peacetime footing to a total war footing. It is a remarkable enterprise,” he told the BBC.

“When you consider where this road of decision-taking is leading to, it’s the end of the world. There’s no other way of looking at it. You would expect it to be cold print, coldly analytical, but this is sheer hell, really, the thought of it.”

Retired senior civil servant David Omand said he played the prime minister in one planning exercise and recalled the experience as “quite scary.”

“It just gives you a sense of humility that we expect our political leaders to take that kind of responsibility,” he told the BBC.

He told the broadcaster about what he called his “favorite measure” — the introduction of censorship for private correspondence — saying it “always aroused a lot of debate when we played these exercises.”

The document is the latest in a chilling series of Cold War artifacts that have recently been made public. In October, the National Archives released the scripts of statements the government planned to broadcast over the BBC in the event of nuclear war in the 1970s.
“This is the wartime broadcasting service,” the announcement began. “This country has been attacked with nuclear weapons.”

The government’s first “War Book” was created in 1911, and it was updated regularly as warfare and the threats to Britain changed. Its contents were top secret — Spencer said only 96 copies were made of the 1964 book.

It’s not known how many copies were made of the 1970 version. Parts of it were published in 2000, but the whole book was only released by the National Archives this month. Later versions remain classified.

The government no longer plans for war with the Soviet Union, which collapsed in 1991, but it still keeps a “War Book” and rehearses for disasters such as a major terrorist attack.
A Cabinet Office spokesman would give no details of the current plans, saying only that there are “lots of contingency plans to deal with lots of different crises we face today.”